Aesop sees this happening and gets up on his feet quickly. The lazy tameness is gone and his coal-black body seems to have grown as he leaps between the Lady and Grigory, ready to intimidate. His golden eyes seem to start to glow and then he ROARS!
The earth itself seems to shake, dust kicks up slightly around him. Suddenly people realize that this beast is wild, primal and savage!

---

19:58, Today: Aesop rolled 9 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,4.  Scary (+1, -1 from previous fail) intimidate!
If someone aids, he can bump the partial success up to a full success!

The Duke was savoring the taste of his magical ball and the way its texture and sound was messing up his perception of the thing. It was soothing in a way. And then he was distracted by those weird things The Lady and Grigory where talking who got aggressive and Foers wasn't screaming anything against him. A wide grin crosses his face and just the thought of the atrocities he was about to inflict on these things make the giant cat roaring seem like a kitten purring.

"Do not touch my friends!!"

The Duke barrels into their midsts one hand holding cupping his strange prize as he turns these agressors into calamiris.

ooc: Lets go Atrocious on them.
Thats a powerfull Atrocity. I guess we are done talking here now ;-)

23:33, Today: The Duke rolled 13 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 5,5.  Atrocious.

JJ shifted into Defense mode, then into Combat mode, then into Sneak mode, completely unable to make up zir mind on how to deal with what was happening.

The Lady watched in horror, as this scene turned from (what she hoped would be) a positive first impression with these people, into a ... a ... battlefield.

What had gone wrong?
She wondered this, as she stepped back behind the big kitten for protection.

At Aesop's mighty roar, half the octopoids rush back inside their holes. It's hard to say if they're frightened, or if the roar just caused them physical pain, but the result was clear: 50% of them retreated.



The Duke rushes into the remaining octopoids like a (large) cannonball, and tears them apart. Their ripped-up tentacles drip ichor as they twitch on the ground. It's almost too easy-- there's nothing hard about them at all except their beaks, and those don't even give The Duke any scratches worth worrying about. None are left except those who didn't run away-- and Foers didn't have a thing to say about it. These things might or might not count as people, but Foers clearly wasn't classifying them as friends...

The Duke pauses proudly looking at Grigory and giving him a thumbs up octopoid ichor still dripping of his fist has he does.

"No worries The Duke protects his friends."

He then turns and seems to be intend on rooting out these bad guys entirely.

Grigori climbs down from the walker gingerly, and walks over to the Duke, "Good man, Duke. I truly appreciate your protection." He reaches up and places a thin hand on the Duke's massive shoulder, "It is good to have friends."

He looks back at the others, "I don't understamd, though. These are the correct mountains, but the one who asks for the orb isn't here. Who could the old woman be talking about? Perhaps we should investigate those tunnels to see if wjoever we were supposed to meet got the same friendly greeting."

'Yeash', The Lady thinks to herself, as she looks at the carnage around her.

If only these octo-people could have accepted her greeting; for she had been respectful and gracious.
But it seemed that they had chosen a warlike response, and too late had discovered the folly of their way, for they were not so warlike as those who accompanied The Lady.

"I just hope that one of these was not the one we were supposed to hand the globe to.
Do you think they intended to simply take it, without offering back the renumeration that the old lady expects?" she asked.

As she spoke, she aimlessly and casually stroked the big kitty.
He surely was a powerful and majestic being ... a worthy guardian for a Goddess to have.

When Grigory mentioned investigating the tunnels, The Lady smiled at him and simply offered, "Pray that Luck will guide you in your choice, my friend ..." The Lady said, subtly and gently encouraging him (or anyone) to pay her attention.
If Grigori, or anyone else, makes a roll to determine which caves to investigate, The Lady can now augment their success, by shining some luck on the situation ... so long as the PC specifically prays to her (or calls out to her) in the post where they do what they want her help with.

JJ blinked a few eyes at the scene, then gave zir form's best approximation of a shrug. " Great and powerful Lady of Luck, grant me the fortune to find the one I seek" he beseeched her then prepared to investigate the tunnels.

As the zenomorphous form called upon her, The Lady smiled to herself.
She hadn't felt that ... that ... Attention in some time.    It felt good.
For is it not said that, to a starving man, even a crumble tastes like a banquet.

GM, when he makes his roll, you know what to do ... please
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 09:23, Fri 14 Feb 2020.

Going tunnel snake, JJ headed in.

16:01, Today: JJ rolled 8 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 1,5.  Shapeshift.
16:01, Today: JJ rolled 8 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 5,1.  Looking for group.

(The Lady, using your power to boost each of JJ's rolls by one won't help (since the maximum Attention you can hold is 3). Since he's got two 8s, you'll have to spend 2 points of Attention to boost just one roll.

But will you bless his shapeshifting, or his searching...?)

The Lady watched JJ morph casually into some kind of serpentine form with intrigue.

Then, as it slithered off, she smiled upon his effort to “... to find the one I seek".
- Spend my 2 Attention to add +2 to JJ’s ‘looking for ...’ roll.

(The Lady loses 2 Attention.)

JJ turns into a large (but not threateningly large) tunnel snake, and heads in.

The snake is a bit disoriented by the new world of smelltaste that suddenly opens up before it... but mostly, the snake is cold. This new sensitivity to cold is what's really distracting... It's so tempting to curl up and try to preserve warmth... (JJ takes -1 to its next roll... -2 if it's an Agility roll...)


JJ manages to slip by a few of the octopoids, mostly because they are a bit stunned from the black lion's roar... but one picks the snake up in a tentacle.

JJ's head is rapidly brought toward the octopoid's hungry beak...

The Duke was pleased friend Grigory was happy and when the intent to explore the tunnel was made evident and then put into practice by friend JJ The Duke proceeds to follow planning to turn any of the octopoids in their way into a moist smear on the wall. They are after all not friends.

The octopoids The Duke encounters upon entering the hole JJ (the snake) entered run away... So far, no sign of JJ... Hm, which way did the snake go? It's pretty dark in here...

While Aesop the cat seemed to ignore The Lady showing appreciation he actually is comforted knowing that it's appreciated. Is this what friendship is like? He keeps scanning the surroundings and wonders wether he should stop The Duke before things get more out of hand.

JJ didn't really care about random octopoids. This one showed no signs of being the one he was looking for, so he sprouted spikes and an electric eel gland and discouraged it.

23:22, Today: JJ rolled 7 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,5.  Spikey bits.

Good thing The Duke was holding a ball of light. He holds it up to see and simply gives pursuit. The enemy will most likely was running after friend JJ and The Duke would protect him making sure to smash any calamaris on the way there.

(Actually it's looked like a ball of ice (that feels like rough stone) since msg #90. Although that might change in the future, at the moment, it continues to not be a light source.)

ooc: Ah i sort of assumed the light was a constant next to the other stuff. Well The Duke has his own light source in that case,

(Ah! Yes! The light sources in the wilderness kit you brought! Good job remembering!

Describe the form of the "light source," and then roll an Insightful check, please...)

The Duke seeing the dark frowns and then puts his pack down. He recalled there where lamps in there. Handy little pocket torches but also a 10000 lumen light beacon meant to provide an emergency beacon to far away places. It was clumsy and big exactly like The Duke and so he takes it out and proceeds to shine the living daylight out of everyones eyes.

ooc: 10:39, Today: The Duke rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,6.  Insightful.

The Lady continued to stroke the big kitty, and watch the cave entrance that SnakeJJ and The Duke entered by.
She seemed curious about whether they would return soon with news of (or the actual) person they were apparently sent here to meet.

Aesop liked being stroked, and seeing that the Lady wasn’t going to move anywhere, decided to lay down and enjoy the petting.